At least 85 position were eliminated at the Fontana and Ontario medical centers, officials said Friday.
Officials at the health-care provider did not release the locations of the other 445 positions.
The layoffs do not include physicians.

"We expect that over the next year we will experience
significant membership growth and anticipate that many of these affected
employees will have new opportunities to be placed in other positions
and remain with our organization," said Peggy Hinz, spokeswoman for
Kaiser Permanente.

Kaiser officials said they have undertaken a series of layoffs
to ensure they meet possible changes that could occur with the
implementation of President Obama's Affordable Care Act

With Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. slowing down production at its
Goodyear facility and laying off 50 workers, local officials were quick
to blame the federal government for recently imposed tariffs as one of
the root causes.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino had no qualms about
expressing his displeasure about the 2013 budget process at a news
conference Wednesday, where he was particularly vocal about the 189
layoffs included in the proposal.

"I pleaded with our largest union, the Civil Service Employees Union
(CSEA) to help avoid layoffs," stated Astorino. "Had they followed the
lead of three other unions to start contributing to the cost of their
health care, we could have saved jobs and programs."

Areas of the county hit the hardest from the job cuts will be in social services, public works, parks and transportation.

Memorial Medical Center filed a state-required notice on job cuts
Friday, giving more clarity to the staff reductions at the Modesto
hospital.

Memorial notified Stanislaus County officials that 114 employees would be laid off in January.

[...]

Memorial officials said a decrease in patients and sharp decline in
payments from insurers led to the staff reductions. The hospital is
affiliated with Sacramento-based Sutter Health, which has medical
offices and hospitals across Northern California.

Nearly 2,000 state workers are being displaced from Florida Gov.
Rick Scott’s administration because of the nation’s biggest outsourcing
of prison health care.

“Due to the outsourcing of this function,
your position will be deleted,” reads a dryly worded dismissal notice
from the Department of Corrections, sent to 1,890 state employees in the
past two weeks.

The Department of Corrections signed a $230
million contract with Corizon Healthcare of Nashville to provide all
health care in central and north Florida prisons and is negotiating
contract terms with Wexford Health Sources of Pittsburgh to take over
health care in nine South Florida prisons for $48 million a year.

In the dismissal letters, prison officials emphasize that
dismissed workers will get first consideration for new jobs at one of
the two for-profit vendors, though with fewer benefits. The workers also
expect to pay more out of their pockets for their own health insurance.

Vons will close its Hesperia store on Jan. 5 after operating more than 23 years on Main Street, according to a company official.

“It is always a difficult decision to close a store, and one we never
like to make,” Jenna Watkinson, Vons public affairs and government
relations manager, said in an email Friday. “However, we have
performance standards for all of our locations and as it relates to our
Hesperia store, this is a location that simply did not meet
expectations.”